Getting to Grips with America...continued...

9th June 2015

Hotelier Experiences,,,continued...

In Edinburgh, at breakfast, one morning, we had the comical sight of two mature Americans in pursuit of our milk man on his pony and cart, who had just delivered the daily supply. The reason for this? Well, we just happened to mention it was the same horse and cart used by Sean Connery when he delivered the milk!

'Big Tam's' Edinburgh St Cuthbert's Milk Cart?

Later, we moved on to own another hotel, where two Canadian sisters, with their husbands in tow, tracked us down for a second visit.We liked that!

We also had the old French gentleman, whose snores could be heard issuing from his open window a mile up the street. No; he didn't snort with a French accent!

Then there was the great figure of our stand-out Egyptian guest. I discovered he liked a taste of 'the cratur' (whisky) and he would sit in the dining room at breakfast time (believe it or not) sipping away peacefully.

Our very own Pharaoh was a great hunched figure, all jowls and heavily-lidded eyes. The other visitors tried not to look as they breakfasted, but failed dismally.

I still don't know if he was Muslim. 

Even when the sign said "Full-up", he wouldn't go away. On one occasion we fixed him up elsewhere with overnight accommodation—but he was back with his tooth brush at 9am next morning.

He owned or was director of an Egyptian newspaper, and the night before leaving asked if we would arrange a call through to his Cairo office regarding travel arrangements. This we duly did, informing the operator at our end to make sure the Egyptians at the other end "Arranged for Hannay Camel to collect him from the airport". You couldn't make it up!!

Friendship with our Virginian family continues to this day. It now incorporates all our family members, and many wonderful neighbours of theirs.

One of these amazing people, in her 90s, stems from the Doswell family of Virginia, famous as great horse breeders.

In the 1700s, their horse, 'Planet', a 'Great Red', was the first 'cuddy' (horse in the Scottish language) to win every leading track event of the day.

There is also a connection with 'Secretariat', the other 'Great Red', which in more recent times has also won every top race in the US; and has even had a movie made about him.

 Virginia rail track. Where a main part of the Civil War was fought

The European and World Cultural Fight Back

Around this time in my life, if I have managed to recollect everything in their proper sequence, my attitude to things European—which until then was positively secondary to American culture—shifted somewhat.

This was certainly the case as far as literature, music and art were concerned. 'Gargantua' and 'Pantagruel', from the pen of Rabelais were now more than appreciated; Dumas, Heine and Goethe as well, together with countless other authors from all over the Continent.

In music, it was the same, a recognition of what I had been missing: Mascagni's Intermezzo from 'Cavalleria Rusticana'; Puccini, Tschaikovsky, Mendelsshohn, Brahms, Schubert, Chopin and Mozart—the list of geniuses goes on and on.

Singers—such as Caruso, Jussi Bjorling (especially with Robert Merrill in 'The Pearl Fishers'), Melba, Callas, Tebaldi, Netrebko, Te Kanewa, Pavarotti, Placido Domingo—and even Richard Tauber—were now a part of my life.

Visits to art galleries made me more than aware of European treasures and of other wonders from the world at large.

I now appreciated the skill, the genius and intelligence stored for posterity in the form of sculptures: such as those of Rodin or the statue of 'David' by Michaelangelo; the matchless canvases of Van Dyke, Renoir, Monet and Manet. 

I have been left speechless by the Dutch masters: Van Gogh, the Vermeers, Breughel the Elder, Bosch, Hals, and above all, Rembrandt.

Rembrandt

In Amsterdam I had the pleasure of seeing just about every painting by this master in an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum located in the Dam square; an experience rounded off by an insightful analysis of 'The Night Watch', by an expert.

Another change in me—horror of horrors—was that I now saw fit to question my beloved American film industry. That said, I can still defend Hollywood as having produced more pure entertainment than any other medium; and on the whole, despite all I have to say, still comes out on the plus side.

Brigadoon was a pure murder of anything really Scottish.

The Music was good though!

More about Brigadoon and Hollywood in the next installment...